Apr 08, 2018

A full day in Lake Havasu

We started the day bright and early with the rock chip repair to the windshield.  Matt did a great job, well worth the $50.00 cash we paid him.  The chip is no longer bothering Colin as he drives.

Next was to make a full crockpot of Thai curry fish chowder.  It took both of us a good 35 minutes to chop all the fresh veggies.  I also had found some fresh never frozen white fish that I would add to the pot about an hour before dinner.  Once the crockpot was working we hopped in the car and headed off to do some errands.  First on the list was  shopping at JC Penny for some new clothes, focusing on some items for Europe.  Colin wasn’t going to get anything but he is the one who ended up with two pair of lovely trousers regularly priced at $70.00 US each for only $30.00 each.  They are even the perfect length and he got three shirts for almost 1/3 of the regular price so he is good to go.  I on the other hand walked around for over an hour and filled my push cart ( should have taken a photo ) to the brim.  It took just over 30 minutes to try everything on and I only walked away with four pieces.  However I have a lovely day to evening black and white dress and a wonderful maxi skirt with black lace blouse which will serve me well in Europe for special evenings as well as Mexico ( New Years Eve ) and in Kelowna ( opera in August ).  Those three pieces came to $76.00USD.  We then went next door to Walmart to pick up a few food items as well as stock up on some binders, page holders, pens and cards to send to Colin’s Mom.

Saw this on the way back to the RV.  A real plane/car with a Volkswagen engine.

Love the propeller.

Back at the RV, some wonderful odors were coming from the crockpot. I began to put things away while Colin dumped and started to flush the black tank. After a few moments I heard rushing water behind me. I screamed for Colin to stop as the floor was covered with water and more was flowing. Needless to say there was not time for photos. I was scrambling to find towels to absorb all the water on the floor. Grrr 😥

The water was coming from under the oven. This happened once before, about 14 years ago in Acapulco and we had to have the entire stove unit removed to reach a stuck valve.  It has worked well all these years.  Here we are drying out the area under the oven as it is sopping wet.  Fortunately we were in a location with 1% humidity.  Things did dry out quickly.  Water was also running behind the toilet and under the fridge.  We think that everything has dried out by now.

So at the moment Colin thinks that we will not get this repaired until next November when we go back to the Isla.  He does not trust anyone but Eric to remove our stove unit and fix the pipes behind it.  Basically that means that we can dump our tanks but we can’t flush our tanks.  What a pain that will be.  Fortunately we did a very long flush of both tanks that day we left the Isla.

The view from our site.  It is lovely but we got sun there all day long so had to keep all the blinds and drapes closed.  Plus it was way to hot to sit outside.

That is California across the lake.

The pot of fish chowder was for dinner at Libby’s.  She no longer gets out very much so we were bringing her a home cooked meal complete with plates, cutlery, napkins etc.  We took the dirty dishes home with us and left her with the leftover chowder.  This was taken at her front door just before we went inside.

Colin snuck outside to capture this shot as I was dressing the salad.

Dinner Chez Libby 🙂

The chowder was excellent even if I say so myself.   As well as coconut milk I used Thai curry paste and another bit of other curry.  No recipe, just good food.

This was our adios photo but I realized that I did not know when or if I would see my dear friend again. Her health is more down than up.  It is difficult for her who is a Canadian ( who lives in Edmonton ) to get all the medical care she needs here in Lake Havasu  during the winter ( $$$$$$ as insurance won’t cover pre existing conditions ).  So we hugged and chatted ( another hour longer ) some more.  Colin was ready to fall asleep poor guy.

So I asked her for a memento, something that I would look at and always remember her by.  For my newer readers, Libby and I studied nursing together many many years ago, so we go back a long way.  The teacup and saucer which was she received the year she was born will do nicely.  Yes my eyes are red with tears.

Many hugs later we finally said goodnight.  Both Colin and I are confident that we will be seeing Libby back here next November.  Love you my friend.

 

 

 

 

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Apr 07, 2018

Dry dry heat

Friday brought another 7AM start to the day. Nothing much to see along I10.

We took the Route 72 turn off at exit 45, a bit of a shortcut to Parker, bypassing the big Q and somewhat scenic.  Just at that exit there is a Zip fuel station and their cash diesel was 309.0, the same as we paid at Loves’s in Gila Bend.  Sometimes they have been cheaper.

My taking this photo of a very old building almost cost us a very wrong turn onto route 60 and back to I10. The navigator wears two hats but I just had to take this photo.

First stop in Parker was to fill our propane tank.  We only used 5 gallons since last November, cost us $12.55 @ $2.29 per gallon.  When on the Isla we choose to run our fridge and hot water tank, on electric.  We only pay 12 cents per kw.  Next we moved onto our favourite RV place, Spanky’s, were they only had half of what we were looking for.  Apparently someone had come in earlier and bought all of the light bulbs in stock that we needed.

Next stop was the Walmart in Parker as we needed to stock up on fruits and veggies. It happens every year, sticker shock!  The prices are high and the quality is so poor. We are so fortunate in Canada and Mexico to have the choices that we do. This car is the home to a young couple from Illinois.  She was in the process of making lunch from the back of their vehicle.

The wonderfully scenic drive to Lake Havasu where each turn of the road leads your eye to even more beauty.

Lake Havasu City yesterday, Friday at 1:00PM. Heat finally. But really too much. Such a very dry dry heat, you almost can’t breathe. Not to mention that both of our noses were bleeding from the dryness.

Had to take this photo as we checked into Campbell Cove RV Resort. A unique way to sweep the grit off the road. He was going back and forth on his bike with the broom, meanwhile I was melting in the heat. The cost here with Passport America is $22.00 per night plus tax. We lucked out and got a premier site with a water view. However the site is very tight and we had to park the Jeep elsewhere and the internet is a joke. It does work at the clubhouse for free but that does not work with my desktop. I do have an ATT hot spot device that I pay $50.00US for 5GB’s. That works for me as we travel North, except that when I did my last post in Gila Bend, I used 1.5GB in 2 hours. Something must have been running in the background.

We were fortunate to experience this lovely sunset last evening. So ended our 200 mile drive day, our shortest to date.

A couple we spoke with told us that it was the nicest sunset that they have had since December and that it has been a cool winter.  Normally this park is empty at this time of year but because the weather is so cold in many parts of the US as well as Canada folks are staying put.

We took this photo at 11PM last night just as we were going to bed  So with the AC on it was 42% humidity and 76.2F inside while outside it was 85.6F with only 9% humidity.  We don’t like to sleep in AC so we shut if off and went with 3 fantastic fans and one window fan.  Yes it was hot but I did sleep.  The heat is tiring. We could never live here nor spend a full winter here.

 

 

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Apr 06, 2018

Adios Mexico

Our last sunrise in Mexico. We will miss you but we look forward to seeing our home again. Driving by 7:10AM.

The first large town North of San Carlos is Hermosillo. As you can see they are rebuilding the highway right into the city. This fellow’s car had died right in the middle of early morning traffic. By the time we had reached him and passed him a good half hour had transpired.

It took a while for this ambulance to reach this point. It seemed to me that they were in a huge hurry to get to medical facility. I hope that all went well.

There is still a large amount of new roadwork to be competed between San Carlos and Hermosillo, not sure if it will all be finished by November when we return.  Driving over a cement road is much louder than an asphalt highway.  To me the cement road sounded like a low vibration whining sound.  Irritating after a few hours.  We were most happily sent on our way at the military stop at Benjamin Hill.  The magic words are coming from San Carlos and traveling to Canada.

Got through Santa Ana about noon.

I have always liked this simple church and square in Altar.

Here we are at the ’new’ facility  just before Soynata/Lukeville to turn in our TIP and to get our vehicle deposit back. After lots of research and input from others we decided to enter via the autobus entrance. Colin has been discussing with this fellow about how we will get out. Behind them is an x-ray machine that we can’t drive through. We asked!  To the right you see the narrow opening that we are supposed to exit through.

We had pulled up as close as we could to the building so that we had a better chance of aligning ourselves with the exit. That will only work if no one else puts themselves in your way, not to mention a bus.

Fortunately for us the bus left first. It had a difficult time making the turn. Directly in front of the bus is a yellow curb that is black from tires running into it. And then there are the chipped and blackened edges of the curb that a vehicle has to first pass through.

Colin told the officials that it was almost impossible to do, so someone came out to direct the process. He really had no idea what he was doing. It was oblivious that he just wanted us gone.

So Colin crept as far to the left as he could to align the RV with the narrow exit.

I was not sure how this would end up.

It was very close to being a disaster. The mudflap flopped over the curb and as you can see the RV barely missed the curb either by width or height. We know for a fact some 45’ RV’s towing that could not do this. We for one have no intention of doing this again.  We will try via the auto exit next time and can only hope that we are not too tall.

We got caught in the new military inspection mere meters from the US border. Basically just a few young people wanting to see the inside of the RV and what was in every cupboard. Then they had to check the Jeep. I had a bag of books in the car and they had to thumb through several of them. In the 15 minutes that we were stopped we tried to find a place to turn in our FMM, Visa cards. The one place that might have been correct had no one in the office, so in the end we just left Mexico with the cards in our possession. The RV in this photo happily pranced in front of us while we were in the detained jail area of sorts. Here we are about to go through the border into the USA. Cell phones off!  Why?  Anyway we were sent on our way with not one single question 🙂  How things are changing.

Stopped at the Passport America Holt Shell station in Gila Bend for the night. Welcome back to the USA.  It was a very long and tiring 457 mile driving day.

 

 

 

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Apr 05, 2018

We made it to San Carlos

We had a good night at the truck stop at the Pemex.  I had the best sleep I have ever had at a Pemex.  In answer to a question, this is Pemex #3970 which is at KM75 just North of Culiacan.  It is a 4.5 hour drive from the Isla.  I can’t understand why people would leave at 9AM and end up sitting in a hot parking lot in Los Mochis from 3PM on 😕   So we started yesterday, day 2 of our trek North at 7:10AM.

The first delay of the day was at the fruit inspection place.  The truck on the left blocked one of the check points and the bus was taking a long time getting all the passengers checked.  Just a 15 minute delay but it could have been avoided.

Lovely scenic drive.

The trucks really get checked from top to bottom at their inspection locations.  Here they are just starting to unload all the cargo to make certain that it matches what they are supposed to be carrying.

We all go through the same inspection area between Sinaloa and Sonora.  You can see how badly the road is chewed up.  Makes for some serious rock and roll of the RV.

To be honest we felt that the roads were in better condition than they were coming South.  Here we are just moving from the border area to the main road in Sonora.  They have done some repairs on the ‘bad’ roads which make the trip somewhat better.  You can see on the right that the new road is in the process of construction.  It will be completed by the time we return in November.

Having said that we did get a rock chip on the drivers side of the windshield.  It was caused by a car carrier as we passed it.  I have already called for someone to fill the crack once we get to Lake Havasu as it is bothering Colin as he drives.  So far it is very small and we don’t want it to spread.

Someone is having a very bad day.

His load kept escaping.  Some sort of mechanical failure.  It was either sand or a grain.

We took the new nicely paved Navajoa periferico which is about 7 miles longer than driving through the center of town.  Having always enjoyed that drive, we will go back to that.  I think it takes less time than the bypass.

The new  C. Obregon  bypass was most welcome.  What a wonderful road.  Quite the drive through the countryside.  It is not quite finished but what there is is great.  Again it will be complete by next year.  There has been so very much progress with building new roads over the last few years that soon the journey is going to be so very smooth.  For those of  us who have been doing this drive for 20 years it is like a miracle.

This new bypass almost appears to be in the middle of nowhere, except you can see C. Obregon off  in the distance.  The roads in that city are more potholes than asphalt.

This is where the new bypass ends but you can see that the construction on the final bit is in the works.

The cost for us for this bypass ,which officially is being called the Guaymas Cuato Libramiento, was 160 pesos/8.78USD/11.20CAD for four axles.  Our RV has two as does our tow car.  The board posting the prices quoted 73 pesos for the car and 160 pesos for  the RV so we could have been charged 233 pesos but instead they charged us as one unit connected rather than two vehicles.  However sometimes it cost more to be charged as one unit rather than two units.  There doesn’t seem to be much logic to it.

There was a second toll booth charge shortly after we got back on MX15 which was the normal toll charge after passing through C. Obregon.  Here they charged us as two units which was 208 pesos ( had we been charged as one unit the toll would only have been 129 pesos ).  What was going on?  So we said that we had just been charged as one unit with 4 axles and why were they charging us more?  Apparently a Libramiento is charged differently than a regular road toll.  Most interesting and good to know.

324 miles and 8.5 hours later we finally arrived at Totonaka RV Park.  It was hot and dry, dry, dry.  From 91% humidity on the Isla to 1% in San Carlos.  We never plug in here as the electricity is off the charts and there are many known blown electronics which can cause thousands of dollars in damage. Even with running a heater we could not get any lower than 136.  The only thing we do here is plug in our kettle in the outside post.  We did however put a 15AMP cord through the bedroom window to run a cheap fan to try and circulate the air.  Our failing inverter managed to give me enough power to do my post.  Dinner was made on the stove top.  Being a diesel RV, the engine is under our bed and it gets extremely warm in the bedroom.  Happily it cooled down very nicely and we slept fairly well.

We stayed connected and parked along the side of the main road, in the park.  Certainly not worth unhooking and backing into a site for a quick overnight.  A  bit of sunset reflection. Certainly not the Isla.

As I write this we are back in the US after a very long 457 mile day.  More tomorrow.

 

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Apr 04, 2018

Finally on the road again

It felt good to be on the road again yesterday but we did not leave the Isla until 12:45PM.

We were only driving 194 miles on this our day one so there was no need to leave early.  Good time to wash all the salt off the RV.

Ismael spent 2.5 hours cleaning all the dirt and dust off the roof of the RV!  It was that dirty after 4.5 months.  We all had to pitch in to get the rest of the RV clean.  I was the one with the active water hose 🙂  It was still foggy out and coolish which is why I had my sweater on.

We finally got the RV turned around and the Jeep hooked up.  Folks came around to day adios.  Don’t you think she looks all nice and shiny?

Looks like the twining of the airport road is almost complete.

A scenic shot during our travels yesterday.

I would have to say that this guy is rather overloaded.  Look at that back tire.  No wonder he is carrying a spare.

So our stop last night was my favorite Pemex ( fuel station ) mostly because it has fast free internet.  It is about 90 minutes short of Los Mochis where pretty much all RVers stop as that is halfway between Mazatlan and San Carlos, the usual final stop before exiting Mexico.  We still arrived too early at 5:20PM as the sun did not set until after 7:15PM but there was a lovely breeze cooling us off.  I did have the best sleep ever last night while in Pemex.  Could be because I was exhausted.

Colin got some quality time in with his guitar.

While I caught up on emails, items being shipped and my blog.  We only put out our bedroom slide when on the road as it is curbside but we keep the living room slide in which is why our living area looks so small.

We had a late dinner complete with a fresh Caesar salad and a few glasses of very nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.  A great first day on the road after a very unsettled last day on the Isla.  194 miles under our belt 😀

 

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